Upon returning home, Chen Wenlin ran into his daughter Chen Yuanyuan who was about to go out.
“Father, what happened to you?” Chen Yuanyuan asked when she saw him covered in dust. The man must have fallen down on his way back, but why?
Chen Yuanyuan had been living a lavish lifestyle lately. The Chen family’s growing influence added to her cheekiness, and when she found out that her family was going to crush the Shi family and become the biggest family in Maple City, she got even bolder.
Her mindset was different now.
In the past, she was all about Yang Jie, but she had been spending more time with Chen Cheng recently. This cousin brother of hers had a way with words and had many tricks up his sleeves. She’d always feel loved and spoiled whenever she was with him.
In fact, both of them had been seeing each other in secret but Chen Yuanyuan didn’t care. If she didn’t tell anyone about it and if Chen Cheng didn’t breathe a word, who would find out?
And after spending some time with Chen Cheng, she realized that he wasn’t half bad either. He was at least far better than that ‘trash’ Lin Jin.
When the Chen family became the city’s number one, her prestige would rise as well. If her cousin brother was able to get stronger and achieve new heights in his cultivation, it wouldn’t be an issue for them to be together. But if that didn’t work out, she could always get another man with her dignified status.
The young lady of the Chen family was obviously in over her head.
But in front of Chen Wenlin, she made sure to behave appropriately.
The ashen-faced Chen Wenlin seemed nonchalant. He even ignored Chen Yuanyuan.
He was currently brainstorming how he should counter the Shi family’s recent offensive.
His family had been lowering product prices to force the Shi family over the cliff. But since it became evident that the Shi family wasn’t going to die as he originally expected, he had to change his strategy.
If he didn’t, the Chen family couldn’t hold out any longer.
His first priority now was to stop the losses, to start raising their prices. Although they couldn’t kill the Shi family now, they still had time in the future to pick up where they left off.
Chen Wenlin gathered all the shopkeepers from his medicine halls and announced his decision.
The shopkeepers were baffled. After all, their mission this time was to crush the Shi family completely and then reclaim the profits later. But to stop now before the goal was achieved would mean that their previous efforts have gone to waste.
“But sir, if we do this, we’d all suffer a huge loss. That’s like throwing away one year’s worth of profit.”
“One year? More like two or three years.”
The shopkeepers had yet to find out about the Shi family’s comeback. Chen Wenlin wasn’t in the mood to explain so he simply said, “Stop asking so many questions. Do as I say, quickly.”
At this, the group had no choice but to bend to his will.
It didn’t take long before word arrived of the City Lord Manor and the Beast Appraisal Association’s plan to switch the suppliers of their medicinal ingredients. Upon hearing this, Chen Wenlin slumped back into his chair, unable to support himself.
He knew that he had lost this battle.
They even sacrificed the profits they got from the past couple of years to achieve their goal. Although this didn’t spell the end for him, it would take at least another few years to recover his losses.
By that time, God knows how much stronger the Shi family would grow.
“Why? Just where did they get all those prescriptions?”
Chen Wenlin knew that the key to his failure was because his competitor had inexplicably discovered new prescriptions. He refused to accept this. After all, he had been planning for so long and victory was already well within his grasp when it crumbled away so suddenly.
He sent someone to gather information at once, and by midnight, an answer returned.
There were rumors that the Shi family’s miraculous pill prescriptions were provided by the Beast Appraisal Association’s Appraiser Lin. The Shi family even signed a contract with Appraiser Lin to split the profits by half.
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Appraiser Lin?
Chen Wenlin couldn’t apprehend it at first.
The messenger simply said, “It’s Lin Jin of the Beast Appraisal Association!”
Ah!
Chen Wenlin’s eyes widened as a mix of feelings came crashing down. They were mostly bitter and his first reaction was to deny this fact.
“That’s impossible. How could Lin Jin own these prescriptions? There must’ve been a mistake. Go and investigate one more time,” Chen Wenlin ordered through gritted teeth.
However, the messenger shook his head. “Master Chen, it’s true. It was really Appraiser Lin who gave the Shi family those prescriptions.”
Chen Wenlin felt conflicted. He knew that if Lin Jin was the supplier, his Chen family wouldn’t stand a chance. Had it been someone else, he could have come up with ways to buy and beg his way through, but to reconcile his relationship with Lin Jin was impossible.
At the thought of his family’s future, Chen Wenlin couldn’t catch his breath and simply fainted.
The entire Chen family went into an uproar.
Chen Yuanyuan was in the midst of having an affair with Chen Cheng in a private mansion. Just as they were about to give in to their desires, Chen Yuanyuan’s handmaiden came banging on the door hastily, almost frightening Chen Cheng’s manhood away.
Angered, he went outside and gave that servant a harsh slap before berating her. Before the servant could speak, she was beaten black and blue all over. If Chen Yuanyuan hadn’t come out to stop him, the servant might have been beaten to death.
After asking what was going on, they realized that something huge had happened at home.
Without hesitation, Chen Yuanyuan and Chen Cheng quickly put on their clothes and ignored the heavily injured servant. Chen Cheng was an expert whose blood contract was at third realm. In his sudden burst of fury, he hadn’t held back earlier so the servant was currently at the brink of death. If she hadn’t struggled to crawl outside and was found by someone on night patrol and sent to the clinic, the poor girl might have died.
Someone notified the authorities when it became known that the servant was beaten up that badly. When the officials came over, the servant tried to cover up the facts. She wanted to refrain from exposing the forbidden relationship between her young lady and Chen Cheng, but after a few more interrogations, she slipped up and ended up confessing that the Chen family’s young lady was having an affair with Chen Cheng. This scandal was now exposed.
Meanwhile, Chen Yuanyuan and Chen Cheng had no idea this was happening.
Once they got back, they entered successively one after another. Chen Wenlin was now conscious again and when Chen Yuanyuan saw this, she began bawling and asking what happened.
Chen Cheng was also shocked when he came in.
When he saw Chen Wenlin in the morning, the man was still full of vigor, but in less than a day, he was reduced to this state.
Their jaws almost dropped to the floor when they were told of the situation.
Chen Yuanyuan was furious. “The way I see it, that trash is doing this on purpose. Father, let’s not compete with the Shi family for now. We’re still one of the biggest families in Maple City anyway.”
Having been spoiled all her life, Chen Yuanyuan was completely clueless about the risks that this crisis entailed.
The enraged Chen Wenlin simply lashed out at Chen Yuanyuan, venting his frustrations on her. “What do you know? Do you seriously think that if we pulled out now, things would turn out well? Do you think the Shi family wouldn’t beat us while we’re down? I’m telling you, now that they’ve recovered with the help of Lin Jin, we’re in for some pain. The methods they are going to employ will be far more vicious than those we used. The empire that I, Chen Wenlin had built over the decades will now be ruined!”
Chen Yuanyuan understood none of it. She only knew how to cry out of grievance after being reprimanded so suddenly.
Chen Cheng was much more composed.
“Uncle, we can only try our best to mitigate our losses for now. As long as the Chen family doesn’t fall, we’d still have a chance.”
That was true. But Chen Wenlin knew that the Shi family wouldn’t give them this opportunity.
Just like how he had treated the Shi family, how could a brilliant person like Shi Wenjun let go of this opportunity to completely crush the Chen family?
Unless the Shi family showed mercy.
But would they?